GENEVA (FIBA World Championship for Women/U17 World Championships) - The 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women will be held in Australia, Brazil or Turkey, FIBA has announced.

The three countries - who all submitted letters of interest to FIBA within the given deadline of 31st July 2010 - will battle it out to make their cases until the spring 2011 FIBA Central Board meeting, which is due to make a final decision following a close review of the bids that the candidates are required to submit.

Australia previously hosted the FIBA World Championship for Women in 1994 as well as the 1997 FIBA U22 World Championship, while Turkey will be hosting its first worldwide FIBA event, with the 2010 FIBA World Championship for Men being held in Ankara, Izmir, Kayseri and Istanbul between 28th August and 12th September but have previously organised the EuroBasket for Men and Women.

Brazil hold the record in terms of hosting the FIBA World Championship for Women, having hosted the event on four occasions, including the inaugural edition in 1957 and most recently in 2006, as well as having held the World Championship for Men on two occasions and the FIBA U19 World Championship in 1979.

FIBA has also announced the candidates to host the 2012 U17 World Championships for Men and Women. France, Iran and Lithuania have officially expressed their interest in staging the U17 World Championship for Men. Lithuania have also shown interest in the U17 World Championship for Women, alongside Romania, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands.

FIBA Secretary General and IOC Member Patrick Baumann said of the candidates "Although at this early stage we know little about the bids that will be submitted to us, recent competitions have shown that the benchmark for all FIBA competitions is rising with each Championship and we expect this trend to continue in 2012 and 2014."

"The unprecedented number of countries who have shown interest in hosting Championships at Youth level and the success of this summer's two U17 World Championships in Hamburg, Germany and Toulouse, France respectively are further proof of FIBA's decision to introduce a competition for this category," he added.

"It is also very encouraging to see that countries who are not traditional basketball powers are increasingly interested in hosting our competitions. This is a clear sign that our sport is growing. We are very excited and looking forward to discovering these bids."


FIBA World Championship for Women and U17 World Championship
The FIBA World Championship for Women is held every four years. This year's Championship in the Czech Republic will be the sixteenth edition. Australia are defending Champions while the USA lead the gold medal table with seven. The U17 World Championships for Men and Women were played for the first time this year in Hamburg and Toulouse/Rodez respectively. The USA won both the Men and the Women's tournaments.

About FIBA
FIBA (www.fiba.basketball) - the world governing body for basketball - is an independent association formed by 213 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognised as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). For further information about FIBA and FIBA Championships visit facebook.com/fibaworld and twitter.com/fibaworld or youtube.com/fibaworld.